Wednesday, 22 February 2017

{The Ordinary Moments 17} #3 'A Family Weekend in Lincoln'

If you're a regular reader of my blog or you follow me on Instagram, you'll know that back in November, we moved house and completely uprooted from Yorkshire to a completely new part of the country. Bizarrely it's only now, looking back at my blog posts from the past few months that I realise how little I've documented about it on my blog. I've posted the odd photo of our house and fairly regular photos from ordinary days out in our local area on Instagram, but not much about it all on here. Moving house is a real life change though and in all honesty it's really taken all this time to find my feet again, to work out new routines and to find the time to sit and blog about it.

Lots of people ask me how I find life with two little ones with no family nearby to help out. Yes it can be hard, but one of the things we have really enjoyed is having family come to stay on a fairly regular basis and to be able to spend quality time with them for a couple of days, rather than just a couple of hours like we used to. The boys love having people to stay and it's nice to have an extra pair of hands to help out with the boys. At the end of our half term week, we organised for my three siblings and their other halves to come to stay here for a few days. Now we are all scattered across the country, it can be hard to all be in the same place at the same time. I know Mr F and I can easily get caught up in this journey of parenthood and in our daily routines and not make much time for ourselves or to see other people so I was really looking forward to having some adult company, to having a much needed catch up and a few evenings where we could sit and enjoy a glass of wine and talk about something non-child related, but also enjoy seeing the boys spend quality time with their aunties and uncles. After all, family really is the most important thing in the world.

It was a crazy few days (7 adults and 2 little children all under one roof!) but so much fun. As we haven't see each other over Christmas we exchanged late Christmas presents, ate way too much food and sat and chatted away for hours each evening. LO and Little L adored having so much extra attention and I loved watching them play and interact with my own brother and sisters. I really love being one of four children and although we live far away from each other and don't see each other as often as we'd like to, I love that when we do see each other, it's almost like we are children again ourselves and we almost revert back to our childlike ways (does anyone else do that with their siblings?).

Whenever we have anyone to stay, we of course have to take them to visit our local city Lincoln and so this weekend we headed over to the historic city. It is such a fabulous place to visit, steeped in history and full of quaint shops, cobbled streets and old buildings. I really love where we have moved to and I felt really proud walking around such a gorgeous city knowing that it's where we can now call home but also to be able to share in it with family and friends too. And while day to day, life can sometimes be a bit difficult not having family nearby, it is all made so worthwhile being able to have them come to stay for a few days. I absolutely love nothing more than a crazy house full of family, friends, good food and lots of laughter. It really was the best weekend, and I know that now we are better located, we will make so much more effort to share in our most ordinary moments with them.

I'm one of four siblings, and the second eldest (and also the shortest!)

I absolutely love Lincoln. My favourite part of the city is at the top end near the cathedral, which is the more historic part of the city. The shops are mostly on one long street which works its way up to the top of the hill where the cathedral and castle sit. It's so steep the road is actually called 'Steep Hill' and it's lined with the most beautiful old buildings and quaint shops and tea rooms. Roly's Fudge Pantry is well worth a visit. You can watch them making fudge in the shop window.

My youngest sister Coco outside the most beautiful florist called The Arbour.

We of course had to make a trip to our favourite restaurant Pizza Express. It's the one place we can guarantee the boys will clear their plates.

If you visit Lincoln you have to visit the beautiful cathedral. It does cost to walk around the inside but you can stand at the back and have a look inside or of course go to a service for nothing.

These two are two peas in a pod. Isn't it funny how your own children can be more like your siblings than yourself? Little L looks and acts so much like my middle sister Madeleine did as a baby.

1 comment

This looks like the perfect weekend. I would love to have the space for friends/family to stay as having people overnight or even for a few days is always such better quality time than just grabbing an hour or two here or there x